Archive for May 2010
The Economist and the Free Third Level Fees debate
Posted on May 30, 2010
It's back, that debate, thanks to a paper by Dr. Kevin Denny of UCD. I have spent possibly hours taking part in an online discussion of his paper on the Irish Economy blog, in fact so much time, instead of writing a blog this week I am going to just link to the discussion and if you get the time to read the discussion, or add your own input, it has turned into an interesting one, and not just because I have contributed! The post is 'Kevin Denny: The Effect of Abolishing University Fees' and the link is here:
Goodbye New Labour
Posted on May 24, 2010
In the Observer newspaper yesterday Neil Kinnock is reported as throwing in his lot with Ed Milliband for Leader of Labour. He thinks he is "a modern democratic socialist" and distinguishes him from Tony Blair, who according to Kinnock was a method actor, whereas Ed is just Ed, he explains. It looks like all the candidates are distancing themselves from Tony Blair and the New Labour Project. Another candidate for leader Andy Burnham told a conference "We let a perception grow that we were in favour of wealth of any kind and with no limits on it whatsoever, that we were somehow in awe of wealth and of business and didn't have the ability to stand up and say what was right and what was wrong". Let's hope this move away from New Labour is more than just for the purposes of the leadership campaign and that the new leader works for a Labour Party that is just a Labour Party. And of course, despite all the pressures here to be what the media or business people want us to be, we should be just Labour too.
A country is not a business
Posted on May 11, 2010
I watched Frontline last night and it was a good debate, and I didn't get so fed up watching it as I sometimes do. For a change on this programme the politicians, Minister Michael Martin, and Leo Varadker, put up a good defence of electing our TDS the way we elect them now, i.e. democratically. Pat Kenny is very interested in lists, he often brings them up as the answer to our problems, and that was one of the proposals of Dan O'Brien in the Aftershock programme that the Frontline programme then debated. Frequently on this programme the idea of having business people, run the country, is promoted. But they wouldn't have to go out and ask for votes, rather they would get straight into the Cabinet via lists, or appointed. This idea often aired by the same Pat Kenny who, on the other hand, last night, made a derogatory reference to the appointment, as opposed to election of the 11 Taoiseach's nominees in the Seanad.
